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Hello CMAA!

I grew up in a small town of a few thousand people in northeastern Pennsylvania (the Poconos). While I wouldn’t change the experience where I lived, my upbringing gave me so many biases. Let me explain; it was never said, but we believed those from rural areas like my town, were not quite as bright as those from the city. We weren’t quite as sophisticated either. We thought we had hit the big time when our first fast food restaurant, McDonald’s, came to town. Ok, I was a child and that was exciting! Maybe that example is cute, but there were many more learned biases too. It wasn’t that local townsfolk purposely wanted to skew our thinking growing up; instead, it is just a fact that we all have biases, and we pass them on. We are human after all!

Deep down, we also knew the evils of the city. We absolutely knew that cities were dirty, filled with crime, unhappy people, and yet, that was where all the high paying jobs were. When  I graduated from college, all these biases came crashing down on me when I went to New York City and interviewed on Wall Street for my first job. I got a job offer. At the time, I didn’t understand what was happening, but I was terrified – I didn’t belong in a city. I might get robbed. I can’t live here with all these high society folks and on and on. So, I turned down a respectable job offer based on total misunderstanding and a reality that was created by my upbringing.

While I was terrified of the city, the gigantic Wall Street firm was also selling the company to me based on all those things that terrified me. They did not understand me, or my concerns, and it wasn’t like they asked, or I would verbalize them either.

I would like to think we all have had situations where our own bias has led us to judgement or decisions that were untrue or unfounded. CMAA’s Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) initiative has landed us at a place where we want to help you and your club become more aware of your own environment and ensure a welcoming culture for everyone as employees. Thanks to a grant from The Club Foundation, this month CMAA is launching the Club Employee Demographic Assessment benchmarking tool.

This tool was developed and has been implemented in several corporate and professional environments as a tool to help organizations assess how they are doing on their own DEI journey. This completely anonymous benchmarking tool asks the GM or HR team member various questions and collects various data. Once completed, you are presented with a report that helps you to understand how your club is doing on your own DEI journey along with some thoughts on how to continue down the road towards positive change.

As I mentioned, this is an anonymous tool – no one is judging you, and for CMAA it will provide us with aggregate information that we can use to understand how we are making progress in clubs and what tools we might develop or find to support clubs on this journey.

I am reminded that we are almost at the point in the United States where about half of Americans are non-white. The working population is split between men and women, with women having a slight edge. We are a country of many religions, many customs, and many beliefs. How do we ensure we are fostering a welcoming environment  that would encourage anyone to work with us in the club?

The CMAA Board, the Club Foundation Board, and the entire CMAA team is hopeful this benchmarking tool will help. They say the average person needs to hear things about seven times before they  remember it or are drawn to action. My hope for each of you is that you are above average and act on this demographic benchmarking tool when you receive an invitation the first time.

I am extremely excited that we are launching this resource tool and making it available to members free of charge, thanks to The Club Foundation.

PS: Our research plans this month also include the Compensation & Benefits Survey. Participate by October 28 and get the information you need to manage compensation and benefits appropriately to remain competitive in today's employment landscape. Learn more.